


Barnes's Missing Puzzle Piece

by yasminakohl



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, I WROTE FLUFF :), M/M, Sleep, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-19 20:51:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5980603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yasminakohl/pseuds/yasminakohl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe notices it first.<br/>Barnes sleeps like there's a puzzle piece missing.<br/>But it's not missing, it's just four feet to far away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Tooth rotting fluff that popped into my head at midnight last night when I snuggled up to the other half last night and worked my ankle between his and tried to fall asleep.  
> Then...  
> Had to roll over and write enough of this in my sleep deprived stooper to know what the hell I was trying to say when I woke up.

They all saw it.  
But they never noticed it.  
Not like that.

Sure they had seen it for months, both in the prison camp and since, that Barnes always slept in his left side, left arm out, like it was suppose to be under some dame's pillow. Barnes had been good with the ladies. Right? So what if Barnes slept like he might be missing a puzzle piece. It was just the way he slept with his back straight, knees bent at just the right angle, feet and ankles curled back out of the way. A dame were sure to fit in the space.

And sure Rogers slept on his left, all curled up and small. They knew he was getting use to the whole Project Rebirth still. As small as he slept his knees always bent like there was supposed to be something there, on ankle off to the side just a bit. His arms looking like they're suppose to be wrapped around something. 

Then one night as Gabe was relieving Dernier for watch when he happened to notice, the puzzle piece.

Cap was on his bed roll, on his left side, Barnes behind him on his left side, arm out, knees tucked, back straight, a good four feet between them but Gabe knew if he pushed them together like puzzle pieces... they'd fit. Well sort of. He was betting if they had been laying there a year ago they would fit. You know, before Rogers got big.

Jones kept it to himself for three weeks. Then Morita is relieving him and stopped short, looking at their CO and sniper, head cocked to the side, he shook his head, then tipped it towards Jones, then tipped it back towards the pair.

Jones shrugged, nodded and tipped his towards his roll.

Morita nodded and off they went. 

Another week and Barnes get a nasty gash on his left side. So of course he can't sleep on it, all night he tosses and turns. What's a little funny is Rogers tosses and turns too. 

In the morning they both look like shit. 

The cut heals a little faster than it should, strictly speaking, but none of them says a damn thing. The cut heals and Bucky's on his left side, sleeping like a baby, and so's Rogers. Well sort off. They both seem to shift a lot, like their trying to find something in their sleep. 

Another week goes by, then it's Rogers taking three rounds to his left side. The pair flip almost in sync from right side to back, Barnes arm out like someone's suppose to be sleeping on it. 

The last of the pieces fall in place for Jones a week later. On patrol around the camp, he hears something to his left. Carefully walking towards the sound he hears, "Stevie, I ain't slept since New York. It's gonna kill me. I'm fuck'en cold."

"Buck, come on you think I ain't?"

He hears Barnes snort, "No, you ain't cold, you got you're own radiator in there somewhere. I know Stark shoved one in there. I can feel it."

He hears Cap's soft chuckle then, "Come here, punk." 

Jones carefully peaks around the tree he's hiding behind and finds Barnes wrapped around Cap. They're laying on the ground, just like he figured. And there it is, Cap is Barnes missing puzzle piece. 

"Buck." Steve mummers just before dropping off, head laying on Bucky's outstretched arm.

"Stevie." Bucky's right arm comes up over Cap and pulls him back flat against his chest. His head moves forward just a bit until his nose is buried in Cap's hair, then he's out.

Gabe checks the time, he can give them about an hour. He wishes it could be more. Maybe Jim will let them sleep. Three's better than one, but ones better than none.

Gabe carefully walks away and finishes his patrol. He stops at the fire to warm up his hands and sees Jim's missing. Gabe's heart speeds up, hoping the radio tech's to sleepy to notice the empty rolls. 

Jim comes stumbling out of the brush, fixing up his belt. "They find some place to curl up finally?" He says nodding to the empty blankets.

Gabe nods. 

Jim wipes a tired hand over his sleep mussed hair, "Good, they look like hell."

Gabe nods again, not sure what to say.

"Should move their gear together. Perhaps they'll take the hint." Monty says groggily. "Hard to sleep with them shifting so damned often."

"You didn't see the kid at boot. Don't think he slept the first week he was there." Dumdum chimed in. "And when he finally did, it was shit."

Gabe had forgotten Barnes and Dugan went through bootcamp together.

"So we are in agreement, we move their packs?" Dernier spoke up.

"What he say?" Dumdum mumbled.

"That yeah we should move them. Though honestly I think we should wake them first." Gabe said after he clear his throat and the cobwebs from his head, "They walked out of the camp a good three hundred yards and laid down. No packs."

"Not like Cap don't run hot enough." Jim offered.

"The ground is still damp." Monty answered. "I will do it. I am the second ranked in the camp." He pushed out of his bed roll, "Where did they go?"

Gabe pointed east, "Even moved closer to Brooklyn." He chuckled. The group joined him.

Falsworth was quiet until he was about a hundred yards away. "Captain? Sargent?"

He could hear them shuffle and Barnes grumble, "Shit. Never gonna get any sleep."

"Is there a problem Monty?" Comes Cap's groggy voice. 

Montey found them and walked over, standing about five feet from the pair, "No sir, just need to have a word with you about the sleeping arrangements."

Cap's face goes blank, Barnes's face is tinged with fear, anger and something Monty couldn't place. 

"Well, unless we're putting up the tents, I'm not sure what needs to be discussed." Cap crosses his arms over his chest.

"It seems to us, that maybe the two of you should stop sleeping on the cold wet ground and just go to sleep on your packs, together, how you have probably slept for several years." Monty couldn't keep the smile off his face when both men's jaws tried to hit the ground.

Monty points to Bucky, "He sleeps like there's suppose to be someone curled up in front of him." Then he points to Cap, "You sleep like there's suppose to be someone curled around you. We know you use to be a pretty small bloke. I doubt there was much in the way of insulation in any of the buildings you ever lived in." Monty added with a shoulder shrug. "Sleeping habits are bloody hard to change."

"What do the others say?" Bucky asked.

"Same thing. By the time we get back to camp your bed rolls will already be next to each other."

"Oh." Bucky mumbled, swallowing down the emotions that had been trying to choke him since he heard Monty's footsteps.

Cap's face was still a bit blank, Monty didn't know if it was shock or something else, so he waited.

"They don't mind?" Steve whispered, a flush of red creeping over his face, just barley visible in the filtered moonlight. That was went Monty caught the scared look in the Captain's eyes.

"No, sir. No one cares. About anything. We are a very culturally diverse unit." Monty smiled and winked before walking away, whistling some little toon.

Bucky turned to Steve, "You think they'd mind if I kissed you?"

"I'm almost afraid to hope." 

"Come on, there's a warm blanket, and it's screaming my name."

The couple walked back to camp quickly. The others are sitting on their rolls waiting for them. 

Dumdum was the first to pipe up, "You two gonna let the rest of us get some damn shut eye now?"

Steve stopped short.

"You two toss and turn all damn night. That ones been doing it since Jersey." Dumdum pointed to Bucky. "The boy ain't slept for shit since I met him."

"Told ya." Bucky smirked but it was sad.

"We didn't mean to keep anyone up. I uh," Cap cleared his throat, "You all know I was sick a lot before and very small. I could never get warm. So, " Cap's shoulders jerked up, "we sort of..." He trailed off, than may have been how it started, but it wasn't always the reason they kept it up in the sweltering summer months.

"Don't care. Just if, ya know, you're gonna do more than sleep, none of us want an eyeful." Dumdum said dropping back onto the ground and rolling over. "Or an earful." He added already half asleep.

Bucky choked and had to slap both hands over his mouth to keep from laughing. That would never happen. Steve couldn't keep quiet if he had his lips glued shut. For his aborted laugh he got a super solider elbow to the ribs. 

"Shut it, Barnes." Rogers growled. 

"Of course, sir." Barnes snapped back, "permission to get some god damned sleep?"

Softer this time, Steve answered, "Granted." They laid down on their rolls and pulled up the scratchy green blankets. Steve settled first, one ankle sneaking between Bucky's ankles. Bucky's arm wrapped around Steve's chest pulling him back flush against his chest. Steve wrapped an arm around the one around his chest and was asleep before the next breath. Bucky moved forward until his nose was buried in Steve's hair again, "Night punk." He mumbled drifting off.

Gabe smiled and shook his head, Barnes's puzzle piece might have changed size, but it still fit like it was meant to be there.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony is the first to notice it, mostly out of sheer luck. He just happened to be the first one to see Steve asleep. The battle had been long and drawn out. It had been a no 'fancy finishing moves' kind of fight; just slogging it out it the trenches, a hit for hit sort of fight. They were all to weary, and to damn sore to drag themselves of to their respective spaces.

Natasha and Clint had taken the couch, Steve had ended up on the floor in front of Nat, a sketch pad on his knee, Nat’s hand in his hair. 

It seemed they had all needed the reinforcement that they were all still here. Tony had crumpled into an overstuffed chair, one foot hanging over the edge, Clint’s fingers wrapped around the outstretched ankle until the archer gave in to the exhaustion of emptying seventeen quivers of arrows and three death defying leaps of faith of which Tony, Thor and the Hulk had all been recipients of the heart attack try to get to him in time to catch him.

Tony couldn't sleep yet, he knew it would be tomorrow before he could. He knew that if he tried right now, the dreamworld would melt into black space with pin pricks of light just before an orange plumb overtakes him.

So he’s awake when Steve drifts off, his blond hair all teased up and crazy because of Natasha's fingers, so he sees the pad slip off Steve’s lap, he sees his head loll back.

He does miss it when Steve shifts to lie on the floor, he misses it because he gets an engineering light bulb and he figures out a new way to pull another ten watts of power from the reactor for the chest cannon, it’s not a lot but in a fight it might just be enough.

When he looks up and around at the group, he sees Thor draped over the other stuffed chair, his hand hanging down draped over a bruised shoulder attached to Bruce, he sees Natasha asleep, head in Clint's lap, Clint has both of his hands draped over her now. And he sees Steve. Steve is on the floor now, on his left side, face now smashed into the side of the couch, curled up in the small space between the couch and table.

Tony tips his head in confusion, how the heck does Steve get his giant body, curled up that small? Every part of Steve body is curled in like he's about to shiver to death. Tony stands to find him a blanket, there’s only one throw left, when Tony drapes it over the solider he’s surprised by the waves of heat rolling off him. That’s when Tony notices the ankle, the one part not curled into Steve.

Tony thinks back to the countless stills and the one news reel in Howard’s collection. He remembers the day Steve started looking like he looks now, and Tony remembers the list as long as his arm of medical conditions Steve had lived with durning the Depression. 

He remembers a best friend who would have and did give his life for Steve Rogers. He has no problem picturing one James Buchanan Barnes, curled up around a shivering near frozen to death Steve Rogers, to keep the 90 pound asthmatic from yet another bought of pneumonia.

The ankle is what makes Tony smirk, so yeah you might spend years with your best buddy curled up around you, to keep you warm durning the depression. And yeah you might keep that sleep pose years later but that ankle out, well that says more then just huddled masses in the cold. You don't slip your rail thin ankle between the legs of your best buddy, no matter how cold it is, unless your best buddy is likely to let his leg slip up, so that it rests over your hip to then tangle between your legs. 

Yeah, Tony’s woken up that way more than once. 

Tony drapes the blanket over Steve anyway, just to have something to do before he drags his exhausted self to the shop to tinker with the newest thoughts keeping him awake.

@@@

The next time Tony sees the ankle, it’s because Steve is actually sick, like a damn cold sick. Stupid snot monsters from Snot-topia had to sneeze all over Steve and even the serum couldn't keep him safe. 

Okay so they weren't actually snot monsters, just free-form caporal entities who's greeting consisted of sharing bodily fluids and their world isn’t named Snot-topia but even Thor couldn't pronounce the damn thing, so Snot-topia was sticking.

But none the less, Steve had gotten a cold for the first time since 1942 and Tony had said he would bring up the tea and soup Steve had hoarsely asked for. 

In a feverish fit, Steve had kicked off all his blankets and Tony found Steve asleep his left side up, ankle kicked out, a dozen pillows strewn behind him.

Tony feels for him, it had been hell learning to sleep without Pepper after their split.

Tony calls out to Steve, “Hey Rogers, soup delivery.” Steve stirs but doesn't wake, Tony shakes his head. “Hey jerk, wake up.” Steve bolts upright only to start coughing. Tony winces and sets the tray down to grab the box of Kleenex. He holds it out to the super solider and waits out the fit. 

Steve looks over at Tony blearily and sighs.

“Sorry Cap, just me.”

“S’ok, weird dream anyway.”

“Jarvis, what’s Steve’s temperature sitting at?” 

“The captain’s current temperature is only minimally raised compared to his day to day status. It is currently 101.3. His usual temperature is 100.4.”

“Buck joked once that your dad figured out how to put a radiator in me somehow,” Steve croaked out.

“Well, he may not have been wrong. You ready to try some soup or tea?”

“Tea,” Steve went into another coughing fit when he answered. Tony handed him the cup when it calmed down again.

“So just how close were you and Sergeant Barnes?” Tony asked when Steve safely had the cup of tea in his lap. Tony watched Steve jerk at the question.

“He was my best friend.”

“Uh huh. See the thing is I think it was something a little more than friendship. I think it was more like lovers.”

“Why would you think that?” Steve asked, his gaze never moving from the steam rising from the cup.

Tony shrugged, “Little deductive reasoning, I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but anyone who sleeps like you do, isn't someone whose spent their life alone in bed.”

Steve glanced up, “Don’t quite follow,” there as a pit in the bottom of Steve’s stomach. This felt an awful lot like the Howlies pointing out that Steve was a missing puzzle piece to Bucky.

“Bet you gave it away in the war to.” Tony paused and pushed at Steve’s ankle. “This kicks out like its supposed to be somewhere. Somewhere like between your best friends leg. Now the only reason you might put your skinny boney ankle between your best friends legs when he's curled around you trying to keep your sickly body warm during long cold winters is if maybe that leg of his slipped up and over your hip.” Tony prodded said hip, “Then his leg would wrap around yours and you would be like,” Tony thought for a moment, “two puzzle pieces.”

Steve sighed and winced when it caused his chest to rattle, “That’s what Gabe called me once. Barnes’s missing puzzle piece.”

“How long before they figured it out?”

“Couple months,” Steve shrugged. “He didn’t say anything ’til the others mentioned it.” He took a drink of the tea, “Buck and I had moved off a bit to try to get a few hours of sleep before the watch changed. Morta said something to Jones, how he hoped we were off somewhere getting some sleep. Guess that got the others talking about how they knew and didn't understand why we didn’t just curl up together. Sent Falsworth out to tell us to come back to camp and our packs.” Steve let the memory wash over him for a change, instead of locking it away. “Dumdum made some comment about how he didn't care if we slept together just so long as if it turned into something else no one got an eyeful, or an earful.”

Tony chuckled. “So you never had to break the habit, the sleeping position?”

Steve shook his head before he took another drink. “I put her in the water a week after Bucky fell.” Steve flinched, “I don't think I slept at all durning that week.”

“Amazing what grief and adrenaline can do, isn't it?”

Steve set the cup down and picked up the bowl of soup, “Yeah, everyone wanted Peggy and I to get together. Maybe I did to a little. To have a life like everyone said I was supposed to. But Bucky was the only one who was ever there for me every time. We tried, a lot, to not…” Steve tried to find the best way to say it, but words failed him, “We tried to stay away from each other. He dated a lot of dames, tried to set me up, but we always ended up in our tiny little apartment in my bed.”

“You know its not a sickness right? There’s nothing wrong with you?”

“Yeah, I didn't exactly believe it was even then so it wasn't hard to let that go. I’ve read the same bible as all the rest of them, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a lot worse things that are sending me to hell than for loving Bucky.”

“I doubt you’re going to hell Cap. You're the best of us, if you aren't going to heaven the rest of us are just down right boned.”

Steve took a bite of soup as opposed to answering that statement. 

“It’s DNA, it’s genetics, it’s nothing to do with a two thousand year old book.”

“I know, trust me, I know. There are plenty of things in that book that people just skip right over.” Steve took another drink of the tea before he continued, “Overheard a group of women at a nice cafe a few Sundays ago, everyone of them mentioned at least one ex-husband. So they all have broken the sanctity of marriage, then they all get either a shrimp or crab cocktail, so they are eating shellfish. I’m pretty they were wearing blended clothes, and two of them were left-handed, but they were complaining about the gays destroying what a good Christian nation this use to be.” Steve sighed. “Now this mess in Orlando? And the bathroom thing, I just wish that everyone would remember the heart of Jesus’s teachings.”

“And what do you think that was?” Tony asked truly curious about Steve’s version of who Jesus was.

“Love your neighbor, he wanted us to look out for each other.”

“You are a boy scout aren't you?”

“Nope. Weren't really a thing yet when I went under.”

“Being sick brings out the sass? Should have known.”

Steve shook his head and winced when it aggravated his throat. 

“Eat up, rest up. I’ll come back after a while and get your dishes.” Tony patted Steve on the leg before he got up, before he got all the way up he felt a hand on his wrist. He looked back down to Steve.

“Thank you. It’s hard to talk about him, about any of them, honestly.”

“Anytime, doubt you're one for details but if you were I’m okay with it. Whatever you need, Rogers, anytime.” Tony nodded towards the soup, “Eat up, so Bruce doesn't go Hulk on me.”

Steve finished the tea and soup and slouched back down into the bed. He curled up around the pillows and tried to go back to sleep, but now he was self-conscious about his right foot. He pulled it in and draped it over his left. It felt so weird, he tried putting it under his left ankle, putting the bottom of his foot against his shin. He groaned and rolled on to his back but that just stirred up another coughing fit. Instead he opted for grabbing his comforter and a few pillows and sitting on the couch in his living room. He propped himself up and asked Jarvis to play something black and white, he told the AI he didn't care what, he just wanted background noise. Jarvis started up one of his old propaganda films. Steve chuckled, coughing just a bit, “I see Tony turned your sass back on.”

“I had hoped to lighten your mood, Captain.”

“Thanks Jarvis, how about something I won’t cringe at for the bad acting?” The movie changed and the opening credits to Desk Set appeared. It wasn't a black and white but it was a movie Steve had seen and enjoyed. He dozed off and on for a bit but it wasn't till EMRAC threw her fit that he fell back to a full sleep. When he woke it was to find a thermos of tea on the table and a bowl wrapped with a couple towels. 

He rolled his neck and dared to take a deep breath, then smiled when it didn't send him into another coughing jag. It had taken almost three days for the serum to beat the alien bug, Steve shuddered at how long it would have taken one of the others to beat the nasty virus.

He drank the tea and eat the bowl of soup and figured he'd wait a little longer before trying to eat something more substantial, just to be safe.

@@@

Steve tried for months after he got sick and Tony pointed out the weirdness of his sleep position to break it, but changing how you sleep was like teach yourself how to write with your foot. It can be done but it's nothing but hell while your learning. 

Then he lapped a guy in the park and Natasha picked him up for an op and the Winter Solider was asking who the hell Bucky was. 

He didn't sleep for three day, then he was drugged for a week. When he was finally released from the hospital and spelt in his room at the tower he had lost any head way on sleeping differently. Or maybe it was his heart over riding it because it wanted Bucky back where he belonged. 

It was six months before Sam had Bucky's location, another three weeks before they got him to talk to them, and four more before he agreed to come to the tower. 

@@@

It had been a year since Steve had gotten sick and Tony asked about Bucky, and now Bucky was here, with him in the tower, hidden away from everyone who wanted to persecute him for the things he had done while under HYDRA. 

It had been tense for a few weeks when Steve had sat Tony down and told him what Zola had inferred when Bucky was still the Solider, and that Bucky had confirmed it when Steve told him where they were going when Bucky'd agreed to come "home" with Steve. 

Bucky had insisted he be allowed to talk to Tony, to answer anything Tony wanted to ask. Tony said he didn't want details, but he did want to know why, and some of the how. Bucky told Tony what he remembered. That turned into Tony beating the shit out of Bucky and Bucky placidly standing there taking it.

When Tony finally spent his anger, they both dropped to the floor and Bucky held Tony while he grieved for his parents one final time.

"I'll go, if you want me to, just promise you'll keep watching out for Steve," Bucky's voice was horse and scratchy. "You can call who ever you want, just keep Stevie out of what ever happens to me."

Tony pulled away from the man and found his eyes red and swollen, tear tracks on his cheeks. "You're both fucking Boy Scouts."

"We were to old when they popped up." Bucky shrugged.

"Oh my god, you're made for each other." Tony stood up and chuckled. "Go fucking sleep with your boyfriend. He hasn't slept for shit in seven decades." 

"He still sleep with his ankle out?"

Tony dropped a hip onto one of the work tables, and scrubbed his face, "Yep, told me it gave him away in the war to. Said Jones figured it out first."

"I don't know if I can trust myself, I have nightmares..."

"We all do," Tony interrupted.

**Author's Note:**

> Here is a bunny for how fluffy this thing ended up. 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Most of my plot bunnies look like the one from Basic Instinct.


End file.
